Running San Francisco

Day 33
Neighborhoods Covered: Hayes Valley, South of Market
Streets Completed: 10th Street, 11th Street

I may have neglected to mention in my original post covering the Walking San Francisco rules and regs that running the streets of the city serves the same purpose as walking them, if at a brisker pace and without the real possibility of stopping to snap photos. (Please. It's all I can do not to drop my iPod when I run; I would demolish my camera.) Crawling would probably count as well, though you would catch me dead (or severely inebriated) before you'd see me allowing my mitts to touch the DISGUSTING sidewalks of this city. (En route to a client's house last summer, I passed a mother and her young son on 22nd Street near Guerrero and was alarmed to see that the boy was barefoot. I mean, we all know I'm the farthest possible thing from parent material, but I would so unbelievably never allow a child to tramp barefoot through the hideous garden of glass, grime, and general grossness that is our sidewalks. What was she thinking?!)

Ahem.

Anyway, I decided to take advantage of this on Tuesday by knocking off two of the shorter numbered streets on a jog. It seemed a nice counterpoint to walking the interminable 3rd Street on Sunday. So I ran: down 11th, along what may be the most vile and poop-smeared stretch of Division (I know, I know: most of Division is vile and poop-smeared, and who am I to issue superlatives?), and back up 10th. It was, I'm sorry to report, a pretty boring run, but it did get the job done. Plus, my side butt has most definitely been in need of a workout more strenuous and side butt-engaging than walking, and this was just such a workout.

But I can't help thinking that I missed something interesting somewhere along my route. I mean, I wasn't exactly speeding along with such velocity that my surroundings blurred, but my attention and effort were much more focused on speed than keen, detailed observation. So I go back and forth here. Upside: two streets down in about half an hour. Downside: not much to report from the journey. Upside: less than a minute on Division. Downside: no chance to search for unusual visuals along the way.

Perhaps I'll save my runs henceforth for the streets I'm not so keen on walking--the remainder of Evans (yes, it goes on, and on) comes to mind. But even those, if I were to look closely enough, might toss out something I wasn't expecting to see.